Honeycomb directional grille



May 7, 1935.

H. s. cow-1|. El AL 2,000,274

HONEYCOMB DIRECTIONAL GRILLE Filed Sept. 24, 1954 Patented May 7, 1935 I 2,000,274 I HONEYCOMB nmnc'rromr. GRILLE Harold s. Covell and Conrad Lohman, Holland, Mich, assignors to Hart & Cooley Manufacturing Company, Holland, M1ch., a corporation of Michigan Application September 24, 1934, Serial No. 745,286

2 Claims. (c1.9s-101) This invention relates to a grille adapted to be used at the outlet of a-warm air pipe into a room heated by a warm air furnace.

The warm air furnace pipes which lead from a furnace casing to the several rooms to which the air is delivered are connected with registers or grilles which are located either in the floor or in a vertical wall adjacent the floor of the room. It is very desirable'that such grilles or registers shall have a pleasing and attractive appearance and shall not interfere in any marked degree with the flow of air from the furnace into the rooms.

Heretofore it has been usual to use a register or grille in the form of a plate, particularly in vertically placed outlets, which plate has a number of air' passing openings therethrough suitably arranged to present a pleasing appearance and disguise the relatively large opening which the register plate covers. Such plate is secured to a surrounding frame. In all instances the air passes directly through the plate substantially in straight paths of travel at right angles to'the plane of the register.

With our invention the register plate is eliminated and a grille provided which may be assembled with and held in the surrounding frame and by means of which the air is directed in other paths than the straight line paths mentioned. That. is, part of the air may pass directly outward from the grille at right angles to the plane thereof, other air is directed laterally so as to pass into the room at angles less or greater than aright angle to the plane of the face of the grille, and in this way the air is more widely distributed and directed into the room. It is one of the principal objects of the invention to provide a grille of this air directional character for the purpose of spreading out the air from the face of the grille into the room and not forcing it outwardly in .one direction only, that is, at

right angles to the plane of the face of the grille.

Another object and purpose of the invention is to provide a register which includes the surrounding supporting frame and in which the grille is made up'of a number of thin strips .i'ormed'into a series of spaced apart grooves and ridges transverse of the length of the strip. The

various strips may be assembled one over the other and held together so as to provide a grille.

face, presented to the room, of a honey-comb character. And of course other forms of grilles may be provided having a different appearance by changing the shape of the alternate grooves and ribs of the strips.

An understanding of the invention may be had from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the assembled grille made in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation illustrating the manner in which the part; are assembled.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged horizontal section on the plane of line 3--3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged front elevation illustrating two of the thin metal strips assembled together.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of one of the strips, and

Fig. 6 is a similar plan view showing a slightly modified form of construction.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures of the drawing. I In the construction of the grille a suitable frame is used which, as shown, comprises vertical ends of angle bar form having flanges or legs I and 2' at right angles to each other. The upper and lower bars of the frame are of like form with flanges 3 in the same plane with the flanges l and other inwardly extending flanges similar to the flanges 2 (not shown). The frame is made preferably in a rectangular ,form and the frame bars mitered at the corners and suitably welded or otherwise permanently secured together. The inwardly extending flanges or legs 2 of the vertical members of the frame are provided each with a continuous vertical bead 4 pressed therefrom to thus make a continuous vertical groove at said head on the inner side of each of the legs or flanges 2 (Fig. 3). I The grille structure indicated as a whole at in Figs. 1 and 2 within said frame is made up of a plurality of thin strips, in practice about one inch in width and of a length, after their forming, as to extend between the inwardly extending legs 2 of the vertical members of the frame described. The strips are formed with an alternate series of depressions 5 between which are upwardly extending ribs 6. As shownin Fig. 4, the depressions or troughs 5 have horizontal bottoms and are grooves 8. The bottoms of the grooves 8 contact with and lie against the tops of the ribs 6 below while the ribs 1 lie over the grooves 5 of the strip below thereby forming hexagonal passages as shown in Fig. 4. The strips are assembled in this manner one over the other, alternately inverted, and are held at their ends by means of projections 9 which are slidably received within the grooves of the beads 4. The contacting portions of the strips at as many places as may be required are provided with cooperating indentations 10' thereby holding the formed strips against movement with respect to each other such that when the top member of the frame has been put in place after the assembly of the strips .(illustrated in Fig. 2) has been performed, a substantially solid structure is provided. 4

As one important feature of our invention the grooves and the ribs between the same do not lie, all ofthem at least, at right angles to the length of the strips. As shown in Fig. 5 there is a central section where the various grooves and ribs are disposed at right angles to the length of the strip.. But the end portions show the grooves and ribs of a substantially grooved form and wherein, as the ends of the strip are approached, the divergence from a position at right angles to the length of the strip progressively increases.

It is of course evident that a great many variations in the manner in which the' alternate,

grooves and ribs between the same are made across the strips may be resorted to. In Fi 6 at the right-hand end the alternate grooves and ribs lie across the strip at an angle greater than a right angle for substantially two-thirds of the length of the strip while at the opposite end the grooves and ribs are formed in a different fashion and in effect diverge from those at the remaining portion of the strip with substantially none of the grooves and ribs at right angles to the length thereof. The alternate grooves and ribs also may be madeof a curved form as shown in Fig. 5 or with straight sides as shown in Fig.6. An indefinite number of specific forms may be provided.

and, of course, the angle of the grooves and ribs to the length of the strip may be increased toward the ends thereof, inpractice varying at the center from 5 to 45 at the ends from the perpendicular.

With the construction-described the direction of flow of the warm air is controlled by the formation and positioning of. the openings through the grille so that" the air is directed from the grille, outwardly diverging at each end of the grille and going to different parts of the room and not directly forward therefrom at all parts of the grille. In many cases where the grille is located near the corner of a room it may be desirable to direct substantially all of the air toward one side of the grille and thus obtain a better distribution and ,1. In a construction of the class described, supporting means and a grille mounted on and carried by said means, said grille comprising a superimposed series of metal strips each formed transversely with alternate grooves andv ribs between the grooves, and with tops of the ribs of a lower strip contacting the bottoms of the grooves of the next adjacent upper strip thereby forming a grille structure having air passages through the same from front, to rear substantially over the entire outer face thereof, said grooves and ribs formed on the strips being located so as to define passages through the grille, part of which are located at an angle different than a right angle to the plane of the front face of the grille, and with the passages at an end of the grille directed outwardly and laterally so as to direct air passing through the grille outwardly and to a side thereof.

2. A grille construction comprising, an open frame, a pluralityof thin sheet metal strips formed with transverse alternate ribs and grooves therein located one over the other and resting one upon the other and extending between the ends of said frame, said grooves and ribs in the strips being positioned so as to direct air passing through the grille at an intermediate portion .movement with respect to the ends of the frame.

HAROLD S. COVELL. CONRAD LOHLEAN. 

